I have recently gotten free time to play video games more consistently. With this free time, I tried to get into some newer games like Modern Warfare 2 but returned to the classics Minecraft, Terarria, and 7 Days to Die. My friend Matt and I began a new save on a freshly generated world. 

I hadn’t played 7 Days to Die in a very long time, and I couldn’t remember the last time I had started a new world. It felt good to get back into a game that brought me countless memories and hours of enjoyment later in my life. But it also helped me solve a problem that had been bothering me for a while now. Why do new games not seem as long-lasting as older games? What gives these older games more replayability?

I found the answer to these two questions quite interesting. You see, newer games try very hard to be the best at everything involved in the game. In Modern Warfare, the multiplayer gives you tons of customization options, tons of different game modes, and lots of different play styles. And while all of those things are good, by spreading out what features they focus on instead of the core of the game (gameplay and gunplay) makes them decent at a variety of different things instead of great at one. 

This is where the older games excelled. Older games like 7 Days to Die focus on being the best for one thing, and 7 Days its being a Zombie survival game. It focuses solely on trying to enhance the player’s experience in an apocalyptic situation rather than lots of other minor features. 

In the end, this difference in priorities in older vs. newer games has shown me that newer isn’t always better. You really can’t reinvent the wheel.